LONG EDDY – The new Long Eddy Fire District Commissioners are trying to help the Long Eddy Hose Co. get back on its feet.

But first, the Commissioners need to reorganize.

April’s meeting – set for April 21 – needed to be postponed until May because of a lack of a quorum. Only Secretary-Treasurer Roberta McLane and Commissioner Tom Shea showed up, along with Long Eddy Fire Chief Pam Wayne. Commissioners Francis “Korky” Karkkainen, Matt Cooley, and Aaron and Colleen Polomceon were not present.

McLane reported that she “had a one-hour call today with a New York State Comptroller Auditor.”

McLane said the auditor told her that the Commissioners “were not in compliance,” but that she was “here to help us.”

“We are trying to get everything compliant moving forward,” McLane said. “The auditor said she did not consider this an audit. It’s a risk assessment.”

The auditor was going to take the information she received from McLane to a meeting “with my manager and chief.”

The auditor and McLane discussed bank accounts, procedures such as swearing in, and the history of the Commissioners.

She told McLane, “I wouldn’t make any big decisions right away.”

In September of 2025, the former Board of Fire Commissioners wrote Town of Fremont Supervisor Brian Brustman a letter to disband, according to the current commissioners.

“It [the reconstitution of the hose company] was moving along [until the letter was written],” Shea said.

And although many new volunteers had stepped forward to help reorganize the Long Eddy Hose Co. – and several had already received their physicals – they were essentially locked out of the firehouse without a viable Board of Commissioners. The Fremont Fire Department and Hancock Fire Dept. are now on mutual aid to respond to fires in the Long Eddy Fire District, according to the commissioners.

“We are trying to get everything compliant moving forward,” McLane said of the new board of fire commissioners. “We are here to be transparent.

“We will have a meeting coming up,” she said.